People are attracted by low airline ticket prices, and they rush to use the newly opened opportunities to travel beyond their usual area. As the magazine "Europe" notes, since 1994 to the present day more than 60 new airlines have appeared, mostly following the low-cost model (the international term low cost has already been adopted), which was introduced in Europe by "Ryanair" and "easyJet". In 2004 they carried a total of 80 million passengers and represent 24% of air transport in Europe. Their turnover exceeds €630 million. This phenomenon is changing the habits of Europeans, allowing the general public to discover places that were until now distant and unknown. Suffice it to think of Katowice, Faro, Cork or Pisa, which are connected to a dozen airports across the continent. With the reduction of fares and the emergence of a new connecting network, demand increased by 59%. The number of intra-European air routes has grown by 30% since 1993.
Recently, the battle around low-cost airlines has been heating up in the skies of the new EU countries, where local similar companies are also appearing in order to exploit the potential of a largely virgin market, but where there is great demand for mobility. Countries bordering the EU are also being included in the strategy of these European airlines. The Union announced its intention to create a common aviation area by 2010.
Russia is also becoming the subject of the expansionist strategy of low-cost airlines.
Currently, planes from four such companies regularly fly to Moscow and St. Petersburg. "Snowflake" connects Stockholm and Copenhagen with Moscow and St. Petersburg, ticket prices range between €80 and €160; "Germany Express" connects Berlin, Düsseldorf and Munich with Moscow for €111. "Estonian Air" flies between Tallinn and Moscow (€70), "Air Baltic" - between St. Petersburg and Riga. Their appearance, given the consequences of this on the European market, worries the Russian aviation authorities, but is enthusiastically received at Domodedovo airport (where "Germany Express" is based): opportunities are opening up there to create a new terminal. Given the importance of the Russian market for Europe, European Commission member Jacques Barrot, responsible for transport, asked the member states for consent to begin negotiations with Russia.
To understand the significance of the low-cost airline phenomenon in Europe, it suffices to leaf through European newspapers. They are full of offers that are impossible to refuse. But they reign especially on the Internet, through which 90% of cheap tickets are sold: there you can see the full scale of this phenomenon. In addition to the airlines' own websites, an endless number of portals have appeared through which one can search for cheap airline tickets. They are equipped with comparative tables, information on ticket availability from any point in Europe, as well as many associated offers: where to stay, eat, rent a car, what cultural events are taking place, and so on. From flights for €20 to London, Paris or Amsterdam, to the chance for frozen northerners to leave for Egypt for the weekend, spend a couple of days by the warm Mediterranean, to golf packages in Scotland or Wales, to bicycle tourism from Vienna to Prague or hiking from Budapest to Krakow - the Internet offers so much that imagination is insufficient. Those who give in to the call of a cheap airline ticket and find themselves holding it, confusedly pondering the unknown ahead, are given a million tips by local tourist services and specialized magazines to spend time well on such an improvised journey.
Airports used by such airlines are an alternative to major airports; they are located some distance from the final destination. So, instead of Vienna, one can land in Bratislava, instead of Copenhagen - in Malmö. But thanks to such proximity, these cities themselves become attractive to tourists. Cafés, restaurants, nightlife establishments, hotels, and organized tours thrive there. Thus they also gain fame and can show themselves in the best light.
Other cities with a rich historical and cultural heritage, which had so far remained left out of intra-European air traffic, perceive the opportunity to receive thousands of tourists from all over Europe literally as manna from heaven. In 2003, 316 thousand guests came to the Italian city of Pisa, which resulted in an injection of €149.2 million into the economy. The French city of Carcassonne received 253 thousand people, some of whom settled or invested there. These foreigners alone created 40 companies in 2001, which, according to a study of the Languedoc region, brought €272 million to the local economy in 2003. Secondary airfields, previously underused, are experiencing a period of dizzying growth both in terms of air traffic volumes and job creation, on the wave of growing demand for servicing ever more passengers.
Hahn Airport (near Frankfurt), where many German low-cost airlines are based, increased passenger traffic from 200 thousand people in 1999 to 3 million in 2004. Stansted Airport near London had a passenger turnover of 2 million in 1991 and 19 million in 2003. Liverpool Airport went from a flow of 500 thousand passengers (1996) to 3.2 million in 2003. La Rochelle Airport received its first international flight in 2001. These were four flights a week by the airline "Buzz". A year later there were nine flights. The airport in Katowice, after Poland's entry into the EU, already hosts 10 low-cost airlines that fly to 14 European cities. The impact on the local economy, tourism and air transport, as well as ensuring greater population mobility, has sparked heated discussions. The reason was complaints filed with the European Commission regarding subsidies from regional authorities and airports to such airlines.
Today low-cost airlines have become a mature reality in Europe. Every fifth passenger on the continent uses their services. Over ten years they have raised a new generation of passengers for whom a flight to another European country has ceased to be an expensive pleasure and exotic, and has become a normal phenomenon in a Europe without borders. Even people's approach to travel has simplified: tickets are ordered from a home computer, prices are low, and this creates a feeling that all of Europe is within arm's reach, that one can easily satisfy one's whim by escaping from monotonous everyday life. The hunt for super discounts has turned into a real disease for many Internet users, who exchange impressions and advice in improvised discussion clubs. The era of low air fares is changing the lifestyle of many Europeans. The freedom of movement enshrined in EU treaties is becoming a tangible reality.
The types of passengers of these airlines and the reasons for their trips help to understand to what extent this phenomenon is changing the lives of many citizens. Some fly every weekend to their families. Some to a bride or groom in another European city. Former students who studied under a university exchange program from time to time gather in one or another European city just to socialize. Pensioners who go to places they could never visit before because of too high ticket prices - for example, to Mediterranean warmth from a cold northern winter. There are those who have discovered that a plane ticket costs the same as they used to pay for a train or bus. Others board the plane because the flight turns out to be equal to a taxi ride, but allows them to visit a place whose existence they had not even suspected until recently. Finally, there are those who can fulfill a lifelong dream: spend a few days in Venice or Paris without spending a fortune. And there are those who travel across Europe with their favorite football or rugby team.
There is another consideration. Low fees allow or even make more profitable the activities they engaged in in their city or region. Groups of young Britons, Swedes or Finns gather in the nightclubs of Barcelona, Tallinn or Riga, rather than at home, because it is cheaper. The costs include everything - from the flight to alcohol. Firms based in London can organize seminars in Dijon, because there is now a direct flight from the British capital to this French city, and a package of services is offered that includes the flight, as well as a conference, hotel rooms at prices much lower than London ones. Britons, Germans, Dutch and Swedes rushed to buy country houses in other countries. This is facilitated by new, direct and cheap air connections, and the price of cottages in small towns in France, Spain or Italy is more than attractive. In the French department of Dordogne alone, 20,000 Britons have bought property. It is the British, who started the low-cost generation, who have become the most numerous (as a percentage of the country's total population) owners of country houses abroad.
Ten years after the start of the liberalization of air transport, consumers, regional airports and local communities are enjoying the benefits of low-cost flights. This is happening despite the economic crisis. Moreover, there are more and more new routes, and the number of passengers is also growing.